in memoriam of a friend
by Asdor2000
Summary: /One-shot, becomes maybe a story on it's own in the future\ A hero. This term is known by many; A person to look up to, a person to respect. But what about a ghost nearly forgotten, haunting the past and staying in oblivion. What happens when the ghost gets found, pulled out of the abyss? What is the truth behind him, what is a lie? The story of a ghost who was reality.


The fourth shinobi war came to an end. With Uchiha Madara defeated and the Juubi stopped, the victory was claimed by the allied shinobi forces. But for a price: their forces were nearly decimated. Roughly 80% of them got killed through the whole war. For his doings during the war Sasuke was allowed to return to konoha under the condition of strict surveillance.

Now, after the war, they needed to start with the reparations and restorations of their individual regions. The villages suffered from the war and were now in a pitch situation. For Konoha it meant ,as well as for the other five great villages, besides rebuilding houses and working on the fields or forest to get new supplies like wood and food, the unpleasantly thing called paperwork. That had the main reason that now, when the war ended, a overflow of new missions got assigned and from these missions existed more than currently active shinobi teams to handle them.

* * *

Long story short Team Kakashi got assigned with the task to organize a rather old storage room filled with scrolls and books under the now not anymore standing hokage tower. The first thought that crossed their mind after going in and placing some lamps to illuminate the darkness was that this storage room was indeed a rather old and left storage room. Old like covered with spider webs and dust.

After they finished the task of removing dust in the whole room they started with looking through the documents filling it. Some were more interesting than others. Completed missions, compositions of teams or the lists of classes graduating from the ninja academy. They filtered through it without much though until Naruto pulled out a book, covered in dust. It was a medium sized book with a leathern cover. Naruto wished with his hands the dust away and read the title: 'In memoriam of a friend'.

His eyes wandered to the author of the book, written at the right lower corner and widened. A multiple of emotions dwelled up in the young blonde's chest and he exclaimed rather loudly: "Kakashi-sensei, look what I found! It's a book from tou-san!"

Kakashi's head perked up, his eyes focusing on Naruto and the book.

"Maa, let's see what Minato-sensei had left for us." He said and came nearer and perked over his former student's shoulder. The other members of the team followed suit as Naruto opened it. They read the first page together:

_'In memoriam of a friend_

_A friend._

_That was what Sakuka Yoshi was. Of course, he wasn't perfect. He was cold, didn't show his affection towards others and was the one of the brusquest I have met so far. He was always the one who found my errors without a second glance and pointed them straight out, not leaving out even a ounce of the unpleasant truth. He never was the person you could rely on terms of punctuality. He was a lazy person and only did the bar minimum no matter how we tried to motivate him and Sakuka Yoshi was the person we needed to drag away from his books before he would even think about doing something with his peers._

_But he was also the one to motivate me. My desire to compete with him lead to the man I'm now. To surpass him once and for all was the task that, in order to fulfill it, pushed me further and further. Despite his nature he helped me and others when we stood before a problem we couldn't solve, gave us pointers or his own ideas of how to fix them. In order to surpass him I invented the Hiraishin. I believe that he and his comments were the reason that lead me and Kushina to stop dancing around each other and coming together. And if something managed to perk his interest and motivate him he solved the problem or learned something new in a record time. He was one of the best we had and, opposite to what all believed when they first meet him, a caring person._

_One says that one only realized what was precious to oneself the moment it faded out of his grasp. And that was what made him in the end what we all were: human._

_Sakuka Yoshi asked me so that his name didn't get on the memorial stone, nor did he want to have a tomb. He thought that it would be better for the all if they would forget him and his errors. The errors that lead to him to realize that humans can't live without humans, that being too rational would lead to pain._

_But I can't do it. I can't allow that he fades in the darkness of oblivion. He, who sacrificed himself to safe us; The person whose last words towards me and the others were 'I won't let you, my friends, die'. This was the first time he called us friends and the last time we heard his voice. I wrote this so that the future generations will remember him. Not for his errors but for the things he did in order to get us through the war. For the hardships he needed to bear and for the losses he needed to suffer._

_This is the story of Sakuka Yoshi. Some call him a comrade, some call him a friend. I call him what he is to me and nothing less: I call him... a hero.'_

After they finished reading it they stayed in silence. Kakashi got a melancholic look in his eyes. His former students watched him with sorrow. They knew that look: It meant that their former sensei was in his thoughts in the past, remembering faces which no longer could be seen outside of pictures. After some moments of silence Naruto spoke up.

"Kakashi-sensei, did you know him? I mean... Sakuka Yoshi."

"I did. He was a good friend and a good mentor. He understood me better than most and, despite denying it, helped me through my childhood. Through all our childhoods. He was the only one Minato-sensei couldn't win against until the end, only able to pull draws..."

Kakashi told them more and more while they did their job. The minutes became hours and all three of them listened to him in eagerness. They finished with their mission around night and after giving their report to Tsunade went to their rooms. Naruto began reading the book, which he took with him, in his bed and subsided himself in the words written down.


End file.
